Raiders
by Kainaku
Summary: All it took was a single moment for Zuko to realize this one truth about Katara. Set during "The Southern Raiders."
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own it!

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**Raiders**

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It was a defining moment in his understanding of this girl next to him.

She holds the captain captive in his own body. She controls his every movement. She could end his life without touching him.

Suddenly the harsh words from his first afternoon at the temple come back to him. What had seemed like a spitting sabre-toothed moose cub became the cub's mother, towering over him.

Zuko realizes that this girl has a power he could not hope to possess. A power only she can control, and she seemed to have used her power without thought. Instinctual. Cold-blooded.

As soon as the realization hits him, she deflates. Her frosty aura dissipates, defeated.

"It's not him. He's not the man."

The captain lay boneless on the floor, blubbering. She leaves without looking back.

They stop for the night so the bison can rest. Leaning against the beast's side the two stare at the waves, lost in thought. The ocean crashes into the shore, drawing farther away as the tide rolls out. A full moon lends her light to them.

Zuko glances at the girl. Her eyes are cold and glassy.

"What was that?" He asks.

She blinks.

"Where'd you learn that?"

She sighs, closes her eyes and collapses against the bison. Zuko continues looking at her, not sure if she will answer. He's not sure he wants to know the answer.

"A witch," she says softly. "A witch taught me that."

Her eyes open, piercing into his, daring him to contradict her. He holds her gaze steadily.

"It's called bloodbending."

"It's terrifying."

"Yes. It is."

The waves thunder into the beach, and a cloud moves across the moon. Zuko doesn't dare look away. The silence stretches on, seemingly infinite.

Then she crumples. Her legs pull up, her arms flop onto the ground and she cradles her head between her knees.

Without a word, he reaches out and grasps her hand. She doesn't look up, she doesn't shift, her shoulders don't shake. But she does squeeze his hand.

It was a defining moment in his understanding of this girl next to him


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own it!

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**Raiders**

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She isn't quite sure what to make of herself right then.

This moment is different than the night before. Last night, she hadn't thought; she just acted, grabbing hold of the captain's blood. Right now, Katara is as stoic and cold as an ice sculpture.

The rain stops in midair and starts forming a dome around the three of them.

She really could do it. She could put this sniveling excuse of a man in the ground with nothing more than a sigh and quick arm movement.

She sucks in air, standing even taller.

Her eyes don't stray from the quivering thing in front of her, but she can see her ally from the corner of one eye. For a firebender, Zuko's eyes are as icy and flinty as her own. He won't stop her.

She exhales, and the spell is broken. The rain falls again as icy daggers fly swift and true at the retired monster. But before the shards find a home in his flesh, her mother's face swims to the forefront of her mind.

The ice stoops. Melts. Falls to the ground, like all rain should.

The husk kneeling at her feet cries in relief at being spared. He says something. She can't really hear him. Vaguely, she hears herself replying. And then she turns her back. She walks away.

Her ally stays behind longer. Katara dimly registers the sounds of a boot connecting with flesh, a pained cry, and muttered words. She doesn't care. She's too far gone.

For half a second she feels consumed with rage at her own weakness. Doesn't her mother deserve vengeance? She had just passed up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill the man who had taken her childhood away.

But the feeling passes as quickly and painfully as it had come.

No.

That shell didn't deserve her rage. If she was going to take that final plunge to take a life, she would damn well be sure the life deserved her attention. That nothing-man wasn't worth her time. His blood isn't worthy of coating her hands.

That wouldn't make her mother proud.

She isn't quite sure what to make of herself right then

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**A/N:** Sooo, I thought I was done with this story. Turns out I'm not. This is part two of three.

Thanks for all the reviews and faves!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own it!

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**Raiders**

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Fire is supposed to flicker, waver and blaze, but he stands there solid, unflinching and steady.

How odd.

Water is ebbing, flowing and adaptable, but she stands there stopped, hard and unchanging.

How strange.

At this moment, they are both stone. And really, Katara needs anything but stone. She needs something to remind her that there is more to what just happened than the swirling guilt and relief in her gut.

Relief that she hadn't done it. Guilt that she couldn't do it.

But then—just as he had the night before—Zuko lays his hand on her, barely touching her shoulder.

She crumbles.

This time she looks at him. This time she wraps her arms around him. This time her shoulders heave with her sobs.

Slowly, warily, he moves his arms around her shoulders. Zuko doesn't say anything, and for this, Katara is beyond grateful. She wouldn't be able to handle any words right now. She just clutches at the fabric on his back.

He is warm. He is there. He isn't turning away.

She's not sure how long she holds him, but she knows the rain stops before she does. Finally, she pulls away and mutters an apology. He shrugs.

That's when Katara realizes that this boy in front of her was more than just a meager ally. Despite all the hell she's put him through in the last few weeks, he is honestly concerned for her. Somehow this firebender who used to be the face of everything evil in her mind had wormed his way into her good graces. Maybe even as a friend.

She gives a choked half-chuckle as he throws the last of their gear into Appa's saddle. He turns his head towards her, looking confused.

"What?"

"Nothing," she answers, trying to brush it off.

"What?" Zuko turns to face her, crossing his arms.

"No, really. It's stupid."

He heaves a long-suffering sigh and rolls his eyes. Katara outright laughs this time.

"Are you getting hysterical now?" He frowns at her. "I know that can happen sometimes after—"

"No," she cuts Zuko off. She pats his shoulder as she walks by to climb into the saddle. "The world's just turned upside down, is all."

"…Right."

"Come on, Zuko," Katara calls down to him. "Let's go home."

She's rewarded with a wry smile as he clambers up the bison.

Her confusion ebbs away, flowing down her face the last of her tears, and she adapts to this new definition of them.

"Okay. Let's go home."

His face flickers, wavers a little, and she can see a little bit of relief blazing in his eyes.

She still isn't quite sure what to make of herself right then, but she knows its a defining moment in her understanding of this boy next of her.

How weird.

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**A/N:** There. Now it feels done.


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